


Of Iron and Fire

by livmidnight



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: 75th Hunger Games, District 13 (Hunger Games), Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Enemies to Lovers, F/F, Hunger Games, Post-Games (Hunger Games), Slow Burn, Slow Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-23
Updated: 2021-02-27
Packaged: 2021-03-13 19:20:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29656065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/livmidnight/pseuds/livmidnight
Summary: During the 75th Hunger Games, an unlikely friendship was formed: Johanna and Katniss will need each other to survive. And neither of them will forget the promises made in the arena, once they meet again in District 13.
Relationships: Katniss Everdeen/Johanna Mason
Kudos: 12





	1. Chapter 1

I kiss him back because I know that’s what I’m supposed to do. I cup his cheek with my hand, whisper sweet nothing in his ear, and linger close to his lips as if I can’t bring myself to break apart from him. And I feel all their eyes focused on me, I feel them falling for this act. All to make them happy, the Capitol, and President Snow.  
What I’m supposed to do is act like I feel a spark, butterflies, something, anything, when I kiss Peeta. But it seems like, while I’m fooling everybody, I can’t fool myself any longer. So while his arms are still around me in the perfect quietness of the beach, I look up, uneasy in this cold embrace, only to find that someone’s eyes, real, bright brown eyes, are staring at me from a distance. Johanna sits in a slight slouch, playing with the sand, letting it fall from one hand to the other, looking bored. But her eyes are attentive, and they’re focused on… me. Her lips raise sideways in a smirk when she notices I’m looking at her too. It makes me uncomfortable, so I look away. She makes me uncomfortable.  
I leave Peeta’s hug and give him a weak smile. “We should get ready to leave soon,” I whisper.  
He looks behind him, to where Beetee and Johanna sit silently, and then nods once. “I’m gonna miss them a little,” he chuckles.  
“I won’t.”  
I turn around and after a few moments of silence, Peeta gets up and walks away. I’m not relieved that he did. I can’t help but want to have him next to me at all times, to make sure he’s safe. Maybe I do not love him the way I’m supposed to, but I do care for him. As an ally, as a friend, as the person who kept me alive.  
I only get to enjoy a few more moments alone, before I hear someone approaching. The soft sand swallows every sound produced by her footsteps, but she doesn’t even try to hide her huffs and sighs.  
“I’m not here to keep your lover’s seat warm,” she says, as she plops down next to me, “but I wanted a chance to actually talk to The Girl on Fire before Snow decides it’s time to kill me.”  
I look at her and smile. “Some would say that talking comes before seeing each other naked.”  
“So you do have a sense of humor!” Johanna claps her hands. “I thought all you did was mope around all day and cry for Peeta.”  
“You forgot bursting into flames every time I’m on TV.” I add.  
Johanna laughs, and I chuckle. Laughter is a luxury I can’t afford right now. Not when the ending of the Game is so soon, and not when I have someone’s life under my responsibility.  
Johanna’s hair is still matted with blood, and her cheeks are red from the sun, the nose spotted with faint freckles. She has a strong jaw, sharp lips, even sharper cheekbones, and dark eyebrows permanently frowning: she looks even wilder than she did in the Capitol. She also looks less intimidating.  
“What did you want to talk about?” I ask. I try to quiet the voice inside my head screaming that I shouldn’t trust her. And I know I can’t trust her, my body knows it, my heart knows it, but I can’t help my curiosity. I watched her Hunger Games. I watched her going from being another human sacrifice from District 7 to a machine of rage and fury. A formidable tactic, a bright mind, and so much anger. I never thought I would meet Johanna Mason in real life, and honestly, I didn’t even want to. A victor is a reminder of how we failed as people but won as human beings. I wasn’t ready for that, not until I was reaped, and I became just like her.  
Johanna looks around, then leans back on her forearms. “Why should I be your ally, Mockingjay?”  
I frown. “Huh?”  
“Yeah, why shouldn’t I just kill you right now?”  
Well, that was not what I was expecting. I look for a trace of humor in her face but find none. Is she really going to attack me? But why would she tell me if that’s was her true intention?  
I close my eyes and take a breath. “If you’re here right now it means that you see something in me that makes you not want to kill me. I don’t have an answer to your question.” I look at her but her expression hasn’t changed. “Because I have a little sister? Because I’m a daughter? Because I want to live?” I huff. “I don’t have an answer.”  
Johanna’s expression softens a little. I wonder what she’s thinking. What she’s thinking of me, specifically.  
“Why shouldn’t I kill you?” I ask in return, moving my gaze to the water in front of me.  
“Because you can’t. Don’t try, because I don’t wanna hurt you.” Simply says her. “Yet.”  
“Eventually you will, if you want to survive.”  
“Maybe I’ll wait it out. Hide until it’s just you and loverboy and you’ll have to fight until one of you dies. Or will you try to pull the same sappy story from last year?”  
I don’t look at her, but I can picture her face just fine. Eyebrows arched, teeth bared in a smug smile, as if to say “try to contradict me.” I don’t, because if that’s actually her strategy, it might work. Except for the fact that Peeta and I wouldn’t fight. I would rather wait until the gamemakers get tired of me than kill him.  
I look to where Peeta and Finnick are talking, both of them sat in front of Beetee, who’s holding the end of the wire. Tonight is the night that our alliance comes to an end. I trust that our plan will work, and then everyone will be on their own. I do not think that Beetee will survive. Both Finnick and Johanna are ruthless, and he doesn’t know how to fight.  
“Can I braid your hair?”  
Johanna’s voice brings me back to the present. I look at her, surprised but there’s no trace of mockery in her expression. There’s nothing in her expression. I really can’t tell what she wants from me.  
I shrug. “Go ahead.”  
She drags herself behind me, with her knees pressing against my lower back. I shiver when her fingers brush against my scalp because they’re cold in spite of the hot temperature. I’m surprised to notice that she’s being gentle, working patiently on every tangle until she can go ahead with her work. Her fingers move fast, only stopping to slightly tilt my head from time to time. It’s relaxing, as if we’re just two girls on a beach, just enjoying the purple tint of the twilight on a summer night. As if we’re not meant to kill each other. I squeeze my eyes shut, willing my mind to focus on something else.  
“My little sister used to love it when I braided her hair,” starts Johanna, almost like she could feel my uneasiness. “It was our ritual, every night. Though her hair was hard to braid. Too thin.”  
I can feel from her voice that this isn’t a happy story. It has a bittersweet feeling to it that reminds me of my mother, in those rare occasions she would mention dad after his death.  
“What happened to her?”  
It seems like Johanna has finished braiding my hair, but she hasn’t moved. It feels like time has stopped. Even the jungle has stopped singing, waiting for her to answer.  
“She died. An accident while she was playing with her friends in an abandoned building.” She takes a deep breath, and I feel a weight set on my chest. “But I’m glad she did. I’m glad she didn’t have to die choked by the flames and see her family die when that son of a bitch set fire to my house.”  
I sigh softly. “Snow did that?”  
I feel Johanna getting up. “He didn’t like that I refused to be the Capitol’s slut.”  
I finally look at her, and her body is trembling with pure rage. She looks absolutely terrifying. I wish I could say something to comfort her, but it would be unfair. My sister is at home, alive and well, probably cuddling with that stinky cat of hers and watching me right now. I know that having Peeta granted me immunity from such a request, and suddenly, pretending to be in love with him doesn’t seem bad at all. I smile bitterly, thinking of how much worse life could’ve been for me, and yet I can’t help thinking that I’m unlucky. That I’m living a nightmare.  
A soft breeze has picked up from the other side of the arena, and it hit the exposed skin of my neck. With my hand, I explore the braid, and feel how frizzy my hair has become from the saltwater and constant humidity.  
“Thank you,” I smile at Johanna.  
“You’re welcome. You look better like this anyway.”  
I scoff and roll my eyes, moving to get on my feet, when a scream interrupts me.  
Finnick is yelling from far away, flailing his hands and pointing at us.  
“Johanna!” Finnick screams. “Katniss!”  
I scramble up to my feet, bow and arrow ready. I look frantically around me but there’s nothing. No one. I look back at Finnick, and see Peeta staring at me, his eyes wide.  
“Katniss...” Johanna’s voice comes out in a whisper. “The water.”  
As if waiting for their cue, they rise. Pale humanoid creatures, with no facial traits except for a huge mouth. They proceed slowly on four legs, cautiously, showing their webbed hands adorned by long black claws. One of them speeds up, splashing, and I let the arrow loose. It goes down with a shriek. The rest of them are still.  
“I can’t take them all,” I breathe.  
I don’t get a reply. The first line of creature touches dye sand, and Johanna and I step back. And then we run.  
The creatures scream their deadly song, and I can hear them chasing us.  
We rush into the jungle, twigs and leaves crunching under our feet, while we stumble on tree roots, dragging each other forward when we lose our footing. Behind us, those mutts breath loudly, growling and screeching, feral. There’s no way we can outrun them.  
“We should split up!” I try to say between one heavy breath and the other. Running definitely isn’t my strongest suit.  
“Absolutely not.”  
I dare turn around, only to get hit by a wave of dread. The creatures almost caught up with us, and we’re in no condition to engage a physical fight. Even Johanna’s axe would be useless against those long black claws.  
“We need to find a place to hide!”  
Johanna grunts up ahead. “I’m trying!”  
My breath is becoming faster and shallower with every step. My muscles are burning, begging me to stop. But I can’t. I can’t slow down, I can think. Run, run, run. Survive.  
Johanna turns right, and I’m barely able to keep up with her.  
“You hear that?” She asks. Other than the blood chilling screams, I can’t hear anything. But as I try to focus, I hear it loud and clear: water. I’m about to reply when a burning ache awakens in my calf. I yell, turning around, and one of the mutts is there, my blood on its mouth, striking red against the white skin. It just got a taste of my blood and I know he’ll want more. I don’t have a dagger. I can’t shoot when I can hardly keep running.  
I groan in pain as I grab an arrow from the quiver. I slow down, enough to make the creature gain some ground. With a satisfying crunch, my arrow plunges into its head. I hear it fall to the ground, but the pack is still following us. I speed up again, only to realize I lost Johanna. I look around, but I can’t focus. Sweat falls into my eyes.  
I know it’s a risk, but I do it anyway. “Johanna!” I yell. If any of the careers are near, I’ll be dead in no time.  
“Katniss!”  
I don’t see her, and all I can do is follow her voice.  
“Here!” She yells again, and this time she’s closer. It’s dark in the forest, so dark that I struggle to avoid the lower branches, and keep stumbling on rocks.  
“Where are you?” I ask, and wait. My breathing is getting louder and louder. I get no answer.  
“Johanna whe-“  
I collide with something. No, someone. The person is grabbing me by the shoulders, and squirm under their grasp, pushing them as hard as I can.  
“Ouch!”  
It Johanna. It’s just Johanna. I’d never thought I’d be so relieved to see this woman before.  
“Stop yelling, you’re gonna get us killed, brainless. Now let’s go.” She whispers in a hurried voice, and then we’re running again. She’s holding my wrist, and she keeps turning back to tell me to speed up. I’m too out of breath to talk back.  
She stops. I stop. The sound of rushing water is really loud here, louder than the savage voices of the jungle.  
“Ready?”  
Ready for what? But I don’t have time to ask. She circles her arms around my waist and presses her body tightly against mine. She jumps. I don’t. My feet leave the ground anyway, and we fall.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys, thanks for waiting for an update. It's my first work here on AO3 so please let me know if you're liking it so far :) thank you!

I can’t breathe. My lungs hurt, my body hurts. I can’t breathe. The water keeps dragging me down, and I don’t know what to do. I need to swim. Move!, I order my body, but it doesn’t listen. It’s too cold. I’m too tired.   
Where’s Johanna? I think I lost Johanna. In realty, I can’t think. I just now I need to swim. I kick my legs, fast, strong, and I manage to resurface long enough to steal a breath before being slammed against a rock. I’m desperately clinging to my bow. I don’t wanna let it go, but I know I should. I should, yet I can’t. I press it between my body and the rock, and I feel it creak whenever I get pushed against it. I hug the boulder to avoid being dragged away again, but the current doesn’t give me a break, and I’m forced to let go before the water makes me smash my head against it.   
The quiver strapped to my back keeps filling with water and dragging me down whenever I manage to get my head out of the water, so I force the straps open and let it loose. I already lost my arrows anyways. I get pushed against what seems like a rock wall. There’s nothing I can hold on to. This must be an underground river. Do the gamemakers know about it? Of course they do. They know everything. They probably know I’m about to give up, too.   
I close my eyes, and I just want to yield to the water. To the Capitol. I feel like I’m falling again. Is it what it’s like to drown? No -  
I’m actually falling. I scream. The air hits my body like a blade. I’m cold for a second, but before I know it, I’m in the water again. But this time, it’s different. Nothing is fighting against me. I survived. And my bow did too. It helps me get to the surface, and my lungs are yelling with anger when I can finally give in to their cries, and fill them with air. Sweet, sweet air. One breath. Two, three. By the tenth, my head is still spinning, but I don’t think like my chest is shrinking anymore. I am alive.  
I open my eyes wide, and look around me. I’m back in the jungle, which is now pitch black, with only the moonlight - fake moonlight - that dares rebel against the darkness. The gurgling of water is loud behind me, so I turn around, only to see a short waterfall , looking feral as it pours out of an opening through the rocks. Thick vegetation surrounds the pool that I ended in, with colossal trees that seem likely to provide a perfect refuge for the night.   
I start towards the muddy shore, but a thought stops me right away. Where is Johanna? The waterfall seems the only way to get out of the underwater river, so she must’ve come out through there as well. Or at least, I think she did, because I didn’t see her in that tunnel. I look ahead, squinting, trying to make out the dark shapes near me. I see rocks and rocks. Fallen branches maybe. But no Johanna. I’m tempted to call her name but I can’t let my position known.   
Damn it. What if she got hurt? What if she drowned? What if she drowned because I was dragging her down? I can’t even remember the exact moment when I lost her. I just know that one moment she was there, the next I was alone.   
I brush my hair back from my face, grunting. Could it be that I didn’t hear the cannon going off?   
Panic is begging to spread through my arms and my back, I feel it seeping under my skin and whispering “She’s dead because of you”. No no no. Wha-  
A scream. A splash.   
“Johanna?"  
I turn back, swimming as fast as I can to the waterfall. Everything is still. Then a head shoots up from the water. She's coughing and gasping for air, flailing her arms around. She’s alive. She’s alive. I didn’t even realise that I started laughing. But I am. Relief killed the panic, and now it’s rushing through my body, making my muscles relax and my head spin.  
"Katniss? What the hell, I thought you were dead!" She drops her head back, her shoulders shaking. She’s laughing too. She covers her face with her hands, and then dips back into the water. When, after a few incredibly long seconds, she comes back up, I think she looks as relieved as me.   
We’re just staring at each other, breathing fast, and smiling. Her eyes seemed to capture every little crystal of light that illuminates the Arena. I chuckle to myself, because I don’t even know what color her eyes are.   
“I thought you were dead” I tell her, my voice raspy. “Where were you?”  
“I was waiting for you in there! I was clinging to this stupid rock and look what it did.” Johanna flexes her fingers in front of me, making red lines appear. She turns her hands back to herself. “I thought you’d drowned or something.”  
“I bet you must be disappointed I’m still alive.”  
Johanna doesn’t reply, she just starts swimming towards the ground.  
Out of the pool, the night is warmer than I thought. The wet suit clings to my skin in an uncomfortable way, itching with every step I take. As soon as I get to dry land, I let myself fall on my knees, and I lay down on my stomach. My heart is still beating like crazy.   
“Do you think it’s safe to stay here?” asks me Johanna, while surveying the area. I don’t have the strength to move my mouth to reply, so I just grunt. Up until now my body was high off adrenaline, and I’m just starting to feel a deep tiredness set on my bones. A pulsing ache comes from my leg where one of the mutts bit me, and I can feel warm blood soaking through the fabric. The skin tingles where it’s been ripped apart, and although the pain is bearable, I need to take care of the wound before it gets infected.  
“Do you still have your axe?” Black dots appear in front of my eyes, and my head spins as I sit up.   
“I had to let it go so I wouldn’t accidentally cut off my own leg.”   
“I need something to cut the suit.” I suck in a breath as I explore the wound with a finger.   
Johanna walks up to me, frowning. “You’re bleeding.”   
“So are you.” It’s true: a ripple of blood is coming down her forehead, pooling up just above her right eyebrow.   
She shrugs. “I guess I hit my head somewhere in there.”  
I look at her as she eases down next to me, and then hands me a small blade. I start shredding the leg of my suit in long strips, and by the time I’m done, I’m sweaty. Whoever designed our gear for the games must’ve put a lot of care into it. Pity it’s all for nothing.   
I use all the strips but one to band up my leg, and now it feels uncomfortable whenever I shift position, but at least I won’t have to worry about the wound getting dirty.   
I pick up the last piece of fabric and hand it to Johanna. “For your head,” I say.  
She stares at it for a few moments too long, but eventually she takes it. “Should I wear it like a bandana? Or maybe like a headband?”  
“It would probably start a trend in the Capitol.”  
We laugh.  
“Just wipe off that blood before it blinds you,” I smile. I’m almost surprised when she complies without any sarcastic remarks. Her hand is trembling. Her whole arm is. She looks so human. So real. Not a victor, not a tribute, just a girl who has seen way too much. I wonder if I have her same expression right now. Tired, bitter. Angry.   
She startles when I grab her hand, but she doesn’t complain when I take the fabric from her.   
“I can help.”  
I wipe the blood, following its path on her skin, until I get to a point that makes Johanna wince. I meet her eyes for a second, before come back up to check her wound. There’s a long, shallow cut on her hairline, with ragged edges, surrounded by a dark halo that must be a bruise. It looks painful, but I don’t know what to do about it. If Prim were here, she’d probably find some herbs for the pain, or to make it close faster. I never cared to learn.   
Thinking of Prim brings my mind to Peeta.   
“Do you think the others are okay?” I ask.   
Do you think Peeta is okay? is what I truly mean.  
“We didn’t hear any cannons, did we? I’m sure loverboy is freaking out thinking you’re alone with me.”  
I press lightly on the wound, trying to stop the blood from pouring down again. “He is not the jealous type.”  
I wonder if it hurts, arching her eyebrows like that. Johanna is looking at me like I just grew a second head. “I was guessing he’d be worried that I could, I don’t know, kill you, but that’s good to know, Girl on Fire.” Johanna winks at me.   
Oh. “Yeah,” I laugh awkwardly. “It was a joke. My sense of humor again.”   
I sit back and turn my face the other way, the bloodied strip of fabric now crumpled in my hand. There’s a reason why Peeta does the talking and I do the smiling and waving. I know I’m blushing, I can feel the red spreading to my ears and my neck, and I’m glad it’s too dark to see it, because I can feel her eyes on me. I stiffly turn around to face her. My own heart seems to be laughing at me with his loud echo beating inside my chest.   
Of course Peeta must be worried about me. He’s probably even more worried that I am about him, which makes me feel guilty. I didn’t even think about him until Johanna mentioned him. I can picture him pacing back and forth on the beach, trying to convince Finnick to go look for me.   
“We need to go back.” I shift my weight forward, trying to get up without hurting my leg, but Johanna drags me back down. I swat her hand away forcefully, but she doesn’t let go of my arm.   
“Why did I have to mention him,” she hisses through her teeth. “We can’t just go ‘back’ because we don’t even know where we are, do we? And we are completely defenceless unless you have a secret stash of arrows up your –“  
“I need to go! Let me go!”  
I wrestle free from her grip, picking up my useless bow as I get up, and I sprint away.   
Bad idea. It takes her a few seconds to reach me, and before I know it, I’m on the ground with my face pressed into the dirt. I squirm and scream and try to hit her, but she’s keeping me down, her knee digging on my back.   
“Katniss, stop.”  
I don’t.   
“Katniss! Stop it!”  
I manage to elbow her in the stomach, but I regret it as soon as I do it. She’s not hurting me. She’s not hitting back. I feel guilty. I go still under her, and she takes a bit of pressure off my back.   
We’re both breathing heavily, and we stay like this, Johanna on my back, me on the ground, for what seems like an eternity. But I’m scared to move. I’m embarrassed that I acted like that. Johanna is right: if I bumped into the careers I’d be dead in a matter of seconds without a weapon. I hate that she’s right and I hate hate hate being stuck with her.   
“I’m okay. You can let go of me now.” My voice comes out husky and low.   
“Try to run again and I’ll kill you with my own hands,” Johanna grunts, but I feel the weight shift off my back. Cautiously, I raise to sit on my knees.   
“Did I hurt you?” I ask, almost shyly.   
“Hah, don’t flatter yourself Mockingjay. You’re as strong as a baby.”   
“And apparently I also act like one don’t I?” I don’t give her time to answer. “I’m worried about him. I just… I feel like he’s my responsibility. He didn’t volunteer to spare Haymitch. He did it for me.”  
Johanna laughs bitterly. “Your responsibility? I hope there are no cameras here, because that doesn’t sound very romantic.” Or is that the problem? You feel like you owe him because you don’t love your little breadboy back?”  
Yes. Yes that is the exact problem. It’s also something I can’t say, because even I am not ready to hear it.   
“I don’t care if I die here, I just want him to get home safe.”  
“You’re not dying here,” she scoffs.  
“And how would you know? Why do you even care if I die?”  
“Because… Look, Katniss,” she says my name like it physically pains her to not mock me with some other stupid nickname, “if we want to be allies, you’ll have to trust me. At least until we get through with Beetee’s plan, yeah? I’ll keep you alive. And if that means keeping loverboy alive too, then I promise to not let your precious Peeta die.”   
“But why?”  
“Because there’s nobody out there waiting for me and constantly checking the tv to make sure I’m still alive. But you do. Peeta does, and even if he didn’t, he’d still have you, and by the way he looks at you, it seems like that’s all he needs.”  
My head hangs low now. I slump back and squeeze my eyes shut because I can feel the unwelcome knocking of tears at the back of my eyelids. I know he needs me. I see it in every stolen glance, every brush of hands while we walk, every time he caresses my hair when we’re laying down. I wish I needed him like that. I wish I missed him because my heart aches without him and not because my brain tells me so.   
Johanna takes my hand. I open my eyes, but I do it slowly, scared of what I’ll see on her face. I hope it’s not pity.  
But I’ll never know, because we both jump at the sound of footsteps. I move next to her, our fingers interlace, as we face what’s coming ahead. The bushes rustle for a moment and then a figure steps forward.   
“Finnick?”  
“Johanna? Johanna!”   
He gets on the ground too and hugs her tight, and then Finnick is hugging me. He smells of sweat and water, and his skin is warm. It’s a foreign feeling, being relieved to see these people who never even existed for me just a few days ago. But it’s nice.   
“Peeta! I found them!” He yells.   
Peeta appears in front of me, and to my eyes, it’s a miracle. He’s unarmed. He’s okay.   
“Katniss…” he exhales, as he gets down to his knees, and presses me to his chest. “You’re okay.”  
I chuckle, and hug him back. “I’m okay.”  
Johanna clears her throat. “Okay lovebirds, let’s go. There’s still time to kill some careers.”


End file.
